


love is a journey

by ninwrites



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Future, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Gay solidarity, Happy Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Introspection, M/M, happy alec day, happy birthday Alec, i don't know what this is but i had fun, team gay sigh strikes again
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-12
Updated: 2018-09-12
Packaged: 2019-07-11 11:15:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15971195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ninwrites/pseuds/ninwrites
Summary: a very short, hopefully fun piece to celebrate alec's birthday





	love is a journey

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Alec Lightwood](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Alec+Lightwood).



> I have tried to write something for Alec's birthday, four different times. I wrote this in about an hour and a half - but I had a lot of fun, and the most important part is celebrating this wonderful archer's day. 
> 
> (big, endless kudos and hugs to yara for unknowingly inspiring .. most of this. you're a gem and i love you.)
> 
> \-- 
> 
> title from 'i get to love you' by ruelle

 

The Alec Lightwood that Aline had known growing up, didn’t smile.

 

The corners of his mouth would lift up when he glanced at his siblings, when Isabelle landed a solid roundhouse kick without faltering on her six-inch heeled boots, when little Max came in waving a sheet of paper with sloppily drawn runes in crayon, but it never quite seemed to reach his eyes.

 

They got older, and hormones started kicking in, and Aline knew the weight behind the way that Alec looked at Jace because she felt it rest against her own lungs, immovable and suffocating. He didn’t smile at Jace, not really, because there was always something dark behind his gaze, something stark and terrified, something he was too busy trying to fight back to see the way it was consuming him.

 

For as long as Aline had known him, Alec had been too busy trying to be the protector, the perfect solider, brother, son, _parabatai_ , to worry about himself; he was never truly happy, because he didn’t know what true happiness was, his only marker in life the joy of others. It was something she had always understood, though she suspected that nobody else did.

 

Isabelle, with her heart of gold and her stubborn hope, thought that if Alec only took the time to put himself first, that he’d be happy, as happy as he yearned for the rest of them to be, because she couldn’t see why Alec wouldn’t. Jace, with that constant niggling feeling in the back of their bond, thought that Alec was just overprotective, that if he loosened up and stopped thinking of the Clave’s law as gospel he might just find himself having fun.

 

Even Clary, when she first arrived, couldn’t seem to grasp why it was such a difficult thing for Alec to accept himself – because none of them knew what it was like, none of them had been brought up into a world being told that a fundamental part of them was _wrong_.

 

Aline had.

 

Aline had felt the shame, the guilt, the disgust because her mind and her heart and her soul didn’t tick in tandem with the cogs of everyone else’s; Aline had fought against her very core since she was thirteen, unable to help feeling like a traitor every time her gaze strayed a little too long where it shouldn’t be, every time her voice fell a little too flat when she chimed in about how attractive this guy’s abs were, or that guy’s shoulders.

 

Aline knew, without having to ask, that Alec was in the same boat; the details might differ, but the fundamentals remained the same. There was a bond between them that had strengthened when they’d both realised that in this matter, they only had each other.

 

But eventually, things had changed. _Alec_ changed.

 

Aline doesn’t think it’s fair to give Magnus Bane all the credit, nor does she honestly believe that he’d take it; that being said, it’s a dishonour to not admit that he was the spark that lit the fire inside of Alec, that he gave Alec the courage and the belief to put himself first, to _choose_ himself.

 

The wedding that wasn’t might have been a disaster, and from all reports they might have broken their own, and each other’s hearts along the way, but Aline knows, without a single doubt, that it was all worth it.

 

Alec has always been brave, and one of the strongest people that Aline knows, but he’s so much more now – he’s lighter, he walks with a slight skip in his step and he _smiles_ like she has never seen before. When he looks at Magnus, his entire face lights up, and little has much chance of dampening it.

 

Magnus was the catalyst, but Alec saved himself, and it’s a wonder to see him shamelessly reap the rewards.

 

* * *

 

“You’ve got a little,” Aline rubs her thumb across her own cheek, biting back a smile.

 

Alec touches his cheek, his hand coming away covered in buttercream frosting; there’s still a few smears across his nose, and chin, and a very colourful splotch of rainbow icing on his forehead, but she refrains from mentioning it.

 

“Huh,” Alec laughs softly, glancing around for a cloth before shrugging and licking the frosting off his hand, leaving more smudged around his mouth. “Who knew cake was such a messy business?”

 

Aline raises her eyebrow, glancing over at Magnus, who’s cheerily serving slices of what cake happens to remain to the lingering party guests. “Well, yes, that is the general consensus when one’s fiancé gleefully throws cake at them.”

 

“Magnus didn’t _throw_ the cake,” Alec says, unable to keep his own joy from showing, a bold move from a man with clumps of red velvet cake in his hair. “He just caught me off guard, is all. I just didn’t see the cake.”

 

Aline’s eyebrow meets her hairline. “As it met your face? Angel, becoming the Head of the Institute really impacted your observational skills, huh?”

 

“I think _Magnus_ impacts his observational skills,” Maryse steps forward and thumbs off a spot of frosting and wipes it on a napkin, before handing Alec a stack of them, because she is a responsible adult. “Not that anyone is going to judge you for it, of course.”

 

Aline holds up her hand. “ _I_ will. But respectfully, and to your face, of course.”

 

Alec rolls his eyes, which is a sight as familiar to her as the angelic rune on her forearm, and Maryse laughs softly beside him. It’s nice to see her happy, too. It seems that love was the catalyst needed to inspire them both.

 

“Luke and I are heading off,” Maryse announces, kissing the one spot on Alec’s cheek that doesn’t seem to have frosting on it. “Early bedtime and all of that. Just wanted to wish you a happy birthday before we go – I’d have asked if you had a good day, but I think your smile speaks for itself.”

 

“Thanks for coming, Mom,” Alec’s cheeks light up, and his arms wind tight around his mother’s back, his head tucking against hers. “And thank Luke for me, too. It really means a lot that you could both make it.”

 

Maryse squeezes Alec’s shoulder when she pulls back, and Aline thinks distantly that there’s no one who deserves this more than Alec. “I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.”

 

They share a moment, one of unspoken promises and a dorky grin from Alec’s end, and then Maryse is slipping away towards the door, where Luke stands dutifully holding their coats and waiting with a patient smile of his own.

 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen your mother – happy, like this.”

 

Alec nods, making use of the napkins Maryse had given him to start de-caking his face. “I don’t think she ever was this happy before Luke came along … again?” The bridge of Alec’s nose scrunches up. “I think if there is a silver lining to her derunement, it’s this new life she has been able to build for herself.”

 

Aline bumps Alec’s shoulder. “Is your new life a silver lining for the absolute shamble that was that wedding you almost had?”

 

Alec shrugs. “I have a better outlook on life now than I did then – and besides, it’s giving me better ideas for the next time. I don’t intend on cancelling that.”

 

“Cancelling what?” Magnus asks, sweeping up out of _thin air_ to wrap his arm around Alec’s waist, kissing Alec’s temple – which seems a safer bet, considering the flush crawling up Alec’s neck and to the tips of his ears.

 

“Your surprise birthday party,” Alec blurts on reflex.

 

Magnus glances at Aline with a smirk that is no match for the glimmer in his eyes. “I can’t tell if this is supposed to be payback for the fact that this party was a surprise, or because I threw a rainbow cake in your face – out of love of course – but I think you’ve ruined the surprise a little prematurely, Alexander.”

 

“Alec has only ever been able to keep one secret,” Aline quips, winking at Alec, whose blush burns darker. “Not that he was great at that, mind you. I knew he was gay before I knew _I_ was.”

 

Alec bristles. “You weren’t subtle either.”

 

Magnus tucks Alec closer, the idea seemingly impossible because Alec is already moulded to Magnus’ side, but they seem to make it work – perhaps this is what they mean by ‘made for each other’. “Alexander, you know that you’re love of my life and I have literally gone to Hell for you, but you’re about as subtle as a giant sledgehammer knocking into a brick wall.”

 

“Told you.” Aline sings.

 

“I guess it’s a good thing that I don’t have to be subtle anymore,” Alec replies, curling his hand into the hair at the nape of Magnus’ neck, his engagement ring glinting beneath the truly ostentatious chandelier currently decorated with colourful streamers.

 

“I’m certainly happy about it.” Magnus’ hand tightens against Alec’s hip.

 

Aline slips away quietly, because she knows the two of them well enough by know to be safe in her assumption that they will soon be too enrapt with each other to even notice her presence at all, and it’s better for her ego if she makes the first move – besides, she wants to find Helen before all the cake runs out.

 

There’s a glow in her chest that she can’t seem to fight off, as she makes her way towards the elongated table where Helen, bless her cute face, is waiting with two plates of cake – for all of her teasing, Aline really is proud of Alec. Out of everyone that she knows, he deserves this … this happiness, this _love_ that he’s managed to find the most.

 

The world has tried it’s hardest to keep Alec down, and it will continue to test him, but he’s stronger – and far too stubborn – to let it keep him down. He is living the life that he deserves, and his happiness is the biggest, most spectacular _fuck you_ he could give back.

**Author's Note:**

> links - for those interested:
> 
> twitter: [ninwrites](https://mobile.twitter.com/ninwrites) for fic stuff/updates/snippets + [biconicbarnes](https://mobile.twitter.com/biconicbarnes) for general fandom mess + small threads  
>   
> tumblr: [here](https://ninwrites.tumblr.com/)  
>   
> (and while you're there check out the [shfanficnexus](https://shfanficnexus.tumblr.com/), a collection of work by wonderfully talented and lovely writers <3 )  
> thank you for reading!
> 
> \- Nin ❤


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